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                          ST COMPUTER MAGAZINE GIVES UP
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...arf... ok, the headline  suggests a very negative statement, but it isn't all
that bad, as there  are plans  for the  future made, too. But  let us start from
scratch.

ST Computer magazine  was really  the last  monthly published  Atari TOS related
computer magazine  here in Europe at  all, if not on  this whole fucking planet.
Even though it was published  in german only it  was the last  one and so it was
the longest running (without breaks) paper magazine for Atari machines at all.

Since there is no real Atari market  anymore the air  to publish a  magazine got
thinner and thinner with every year. The trend downwards started  already in the
middle nineties, as the magazine was going thinner  and thinner. Starting from a
pages  number  far over 1oo it reached  somewhen the 6os. In  those times it was
released by the same  publishing  house. Later on  they "joined" forces with the
other  new founded german  magazine "Atari Inside" and  where taken  over by the
publishers of this magazine.

With this change  of the publishing house the quarrels around ST Computer really
begun as the "Atari Inside" was  always known  for the bad layout and the masses
of mispelling errors as well as some hurray patriotism. Those influences entered
now  the  ST Computer as  well and  you can  say that  with this  change of  the
publisher the ST Computer went down even faster.

But the  new publishers, the "Falke Verlag", was  a bit more  enthusiastic about
making a  paper  magazine  and  while the  quite  big "Heim Verlag", the  former
publisher, that was much more powerful as the "Falke Verlag" decided to stop the
ST Computer because  it was going to  be no good  deal anymore, the guys  of the
"Falke Verlag" always were searching ways to go on with the magazine.

So they stopped  the free sale of the magazine and changed it into a subscribers
magazine only. They told the readers that  this is the  best way to make the mag
survive  even without announcement  pays. You know, the market was  already very
small and there weren't  that much software  publishing firms  left on the Atari
scene that  could buy an announcement  place in the  magazine. This was the time
that I left the magazine out of my eyes as I was never a big fan of a magazine I
haven't seen before in the shop, I just don't wanted to buy the cat in the bag.

Later on they decided to  print the whole magazine only in black and white, just
to save  money. So the ST Computer, that  always featured  coloured pages in the
past, came just with a coloured  cover. But it doesn't helped that  long. It has
slowly  lost subscriber  for subscriber, and  article  writers  as well as  some
people that announced something. So the  latest announcements were just  done by
the "Falke Verlag" itself for DigiCam magazines  as well as  some  cartridge ink
sellers and Greenpeace.

More or  less one affected the  other and so the reputation went down faster and
faster. I know of many people that  didn't liked  the magazine  anymore and have
deleted their subscriptions. And so last autumn  the rumours  came up that it is
going  to its end  somewhen in the  near future  and I heard  the rumour that at
least 5oo new subscriber were needed just to save the magazine for another year.
At last in spring I decided to  subscribe the  magazine, esp since  I started to
write articles  for them as well and  since I wanted to see them on paper I just
ordered it.

Last but  not least in issue  o5/o3 they  announced the death  of ST Computer as
autonome paper magazine. With this announcement  in several  discussion boards a
new wave of flames started to roll  down and it even  seemed that several people
were satisfied by the fact that the magazine was given up... After all I have to
say, this sucks!

I know that many people were  disturbed by the  change of the editors staff, the
design and the release politics but we have  the face  the fact, that it was the
only magazine  that has  survived until  now, that has survived the  dead of the
company that has build the computers it was writing  about over many years, that
was going on even if there was more or less no market left and not much to write
about anymore... and now they  get flamed for  their works, NO other has done in
the past. But  this is  always a fact, the  ones that  are doing  something will
always be  the ones that get  flamed. If this  happens through  people  that are
active by themselves, I see no problem in this, but this isn't always the fact.

Sure, the editors staff has made a lot of mistakes and failures in the past, but
only who does something can do mistakes. I for myself  wasn't satisfied with the
fact as well that they don't informed  the people about the situation of the mag
before it went out of control. And I don't like the future they prepared for the
subscribers  as well... So the subscriptions  will be  changed into  one for the
magazine "PC Welt" that  includes  a 16 pages ST Computer special in full colour
in every issue. This  isn't really the thing I  want to see  in my mailbox, as I
don't want to subscribe to a PC magazine at all but  in the end I decided to let
it run and to check out how it will look like.

But I really had liked to see more informations before the change of the mag. If
there was some potential left, maybe to raise  the price  a bit and to get a bit
smaller magazine as well, or to change the  release interval  or something else.
The biggest mistake was just that the editors have left out the subscribers who,
in the end, are the ones who gave their money for the creation of the magazine.

But it was done now and nobody can  change it anymore. I'm sure even more people
will stop their subscription now and so  the future of the ST Computer  involved
in the "PC Welt" is  very  uncertain as the  publishers of  this magazine surely
don't care about a few hundred  subscribers. The less subscribers  will be left,
the closer  steps the  ST Computer  sub-magazine to its  grave... And so was the
last move of the editors staff of the autonome magazine the worst they could do,
that worse were  not all the  mistakes and failures  in the magazine itself over
the past years. The patience of the readers was  stretched too  much in the past
that they accept such a move without reaction and so the will to help the STC to
survive could bring it to death instead...

Too bad... I will observe the following moves and steps and will inform you...

_.tSCc.__________________________________________________________moondog_o6/2k3_